According to the late journalist John Gersassi—whose book, The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice and Folly in an American City , chronicles the scandal—the police questioned nearly 1, Boise citizens and gathered the names of hundreds of suspected homosexuals by the time the investigation ran its course the following year. During the years Morris Foote spent in self-imposed exile he worked as a farmer and lived just down the road from the house where he grew up. In the early s, Morris attended his first public protest against the virulently anti-gay Rev.
For a comprehensive look at the Boise homosexual panic, have a look at John G. In this episode Morris mentions Rev. Freda Smith, who gave a memorable speech at a protest rally Morris attended. To learn more about Rev. Smith, click here. To get a better sense of the anti-gay hysteria of the s, have a look at David K. Read a summary of the book here. Every city, as I came to discover, had its own history and stories as the gay rights struggle spread across the country.
John Gerassi, a journalist, wrote about it in his book, The Boys of Boise. As he explained, it all started with the arrest of two men on morals charges and the false claim by a Boise probation officer that about a hundred boys were involved in a homosexual ring. As the phony scandal unfolded over several months, the police questioned nearly 1, Boise citizens—in a town that had only 40, residents.
They gathered the names of hundreds of suspected homosexuals, many of them in heterosexual marriages. In the end, 16 men were arrested. Ten went to jail. For most of them, their only crime was engaging in sex with another consenting male. I had to go to Boise. But the challenge was finding someone who was gay, who remembered what happened, and who would talk to me.
They had one name for me—Morris Foote, a retired farmer who lived in Middleton, Idaho about a half hour northwest of Boise. I called Morris and we made a date to meet at the cafe next to where he lived. There was one condition. That would have to wait until we went back to his house. It would be my first time in Idaho. I step out of my rental car and take in the landscape. A few one-story bungalows. Some well kept. Some not. Morris had explained to me that his brother moved in with him after their mother died.
